Another part of the journey begins & we leave Guilin today heading North East to Fenghuang. I'm a little bit sad to be leaving, it's a beautiful town, I've loved our adventures & the hostel.
After packing & eating a breakfast of fruit & instant coffee, we confirmed a few things with the staff at the hostel such as our bus departure time & what bus station we would arrive at in Fenghuang. Once again the staff go above & beyond regular good service by calling our next accommodation & speaking to them about transport, check in times etc, then she called the bus station & confirmed our departure times, relaying specific instructions from both conversations & then called us a taxi to get to the Qing Tan bus station. I can't recommend Ease Hostel enough based on location, outstanding service, friendliness, cleanliness, personal touch's & a great all round atmosphere.
The trip in the taxi came to less than 15 Yuan, less than 3 dollars AUD. Amazing how cheap the cabs are. We always tip a few extra dollars. Anyway! We arrived at the bus station at 1.30pm & easily brought tickets for a 3pm departure, thankfully it's a small bus station.
It's going to be a big day of reading, Netflix & listening to music while staring out the window at the ever changing landscape. China's beauty continues to grow the deeper we travel into the country. A land ravaged by mountains, hills & rivers. The mountainside's cut into blocks to help with irrigation & the crops planted into these blocks, from the distance the mountains look like they are covered in scales. At this time of year, most of the scales are colours of brown & blue, bare dirt & water awaiting plants to become green again.
After we had been driving for 4 hours, we started to notice crops of yellow flowers, and lots of small trees resembling different species of pine trees.
There is minimal rubbish in the country, small villages & I'm guessing minimal electricity due to the dark houses & large fire pits. I also noticed the sun was later to set.
We arrived in Fenghuang just before 8.30pm and found a 'taxi' driver, who wasn't really a taxi driver & charged us 3x what the fair should of been. He was very enthusiastic about his horn & driving on the wrong side of the road, more so than the average Chinese driver, but he got us to the road our hotel was near. The hotel manager met us at the entrance to the road (cars aren't allowed along the roads & lanes of old Fenghuang) all waves & smiles. He grabbed my bag out of the boot, obviously struggling but determined to carry it. Commenting to Tom on the fact that I'm so thin, my bag is very heavy & also that I have no jumper & it's very cold.
He was so excited to have us stay at the hotel. It was also at this hotel that we are confronted with the unavoidable squatty potty, up until now we had been very successful in dodging it. Another great hotel booking, a 2 minute stroll down to the river and the old town but still far enough away to avoid the throngs of people, most of the noise and at a great price!
Fenghuang- OMG - Amazing. We instantly wish we had more time here. We left our hotel room keen as beans to explore. It is stunning!
Never have I been so infatuated with a city or felt so immersed in culture. This is old China in all its glory.
Everything you dream China would look like, it looks like in Fenghuang, combined with the smells & sounds make it mystical, elegant and ancient. Lanterns, pagodas and houses with pointy roofs, wooden boats, houses on poles leaning over the river, bamboo everywhere, chinese music, dragons and symbols, the colours red and gold dominating everything, Traditional clothing and make up, old wooden carts being pulled up tiled lanes. It is a sight to behold.
- Alli
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